an attempt to add colors to my wardrobe

When it comes to color combinations, red, white, and blue is pretty much a classic, isn’t it? As I was putting this outfit together (well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. “Putting this outfit together” mostly consists of me ironing the shirt), I was struck by how many countries have red, white, and blue flags. I know that the flag of France, for instance, was official adopted after the French Revolution, so the three colors stand for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, but I have no idea about the other countries. And, even in the case the French flag, how did those colors come to symbolize these ideas? I did some Googling, but there is no definitive answer. The only thing I could glean is that there are so many tricolor flags because of colonization (for example, all the former British and Dutch colonies also have red, white, and blue flags).

You know what, I bet it’s just a case of some person looking at these colors and thinking, “Hey, they look nice together.” Like I did with this outfit 🙂

Here it is. The outfit I planned for SIA. Not as exciting and/or stylish as the one I posted on Monday, is it? I just thought that the polka dot blouse would be a good fit for the gray part of the painting, and the jeans and the brown oxfords are self-explanatory. I was going to wear my “house” necklace as well, because it sort of looks like the houses around the market place in the painting, but what with my lack of interest in jewelry these days, I simply forgot about it. Ah well.

The full round-up will be posted tomorrow, so if you haven’t sent me your outfit photos, there’s still time!

I had put together a different SIA outfit earlier last week, but when I wore this on Friday, I realized that it was perfect for SIA – the title of the inspiration painting may say “Variations in Violet and Grey“, but it looks more like navy and beige to me (probably because the watercolors had aged). I would’ve worn my beige sandals as well, but one of the buckles broke, so they’re currently at the cobbler’s getting fixed. I’m going to post my “other” outfit tomorrow too, but really, it pales in comparison.

And that means you guys still have until tomorrow to send me your outfits, if you haven’t already. The full round-up will be posted on Wednesday instead!

I’ve been feeling disinclined to wear any jewelry lately. Mostly it’s because the tops I’m wearing are pretty attention-grabbing on their own (like this fish-print blouse), so any brooch or necklace would just clutter up the outfit. Besides, I’m getting bored with all of my accessories, but don’t want to buy any new one. Also, it’s really hot and muggy these days and I just want to put on a shirt and be done with it (to the point I didn’t even bother changing my jeans + sandals pairing.) It’s going to change in the fall, I’m sure, but for now I’m going to stick to a “minimal jewelry” look.

This is another simple outfit, but I think I was subconsciously inspired by one of my favorite childhood books, “The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends“. It’s a Soviet children’s book about a group of tiny, childlike people (like, actual tiny, about the size of a medium cucumber) that go on an adventure in a hot-air balloon. I’ve worn out my copy years ago, so I was really happy to be able to find the reprinted edition in the store recently. And if you look at the cover, well, you can see where my outfit comes from.

In other news, these heels sadly bit the dust after I was caught in the rain, but I didn’t mourn them too much because they’re not real leather and I’ve been wearing them for a while. Plus, it gives me the reason to look for new black pumps 😀

For this week’s SIA, inspired by Gerda Wegener‘s self-portrait, I knew I was going to wear a blue shirt and a black skirt because that’s what she’s wearing in the painting. So I decided to give this blouse another try – it is, if you recall, my ill-advised online purchase which turned out to be too short and isn’t even in the right fabric. It’s actually perfect for this SIA challenge – the color is right, and it even has a pearl button in the back to mimic the pearl necklace she’s wearing.

I thought that I could make the blouse work with a skirt, but I still had to hike the skirt’s waist up to be able to tuck it in. It might work with a pencil skirt, but that’s not really my silhouette. In the end, I figure it’s just not going to work and give it to my mom. She has a short torso, so it looks great on her, and at least I feel better about giving it up.

Don’t forget to check out Jen’s blog for other interpretations of this painting!

This blouse is the third (and last) of my shopping haul to prepare for the new school year. I wasn’t going to get it because it’s the exact same cut as the gray polka-dot one and I was afraid it would look like a potato sack on me, but my sister convinced me that it’s my color. She’s right, of course – my coloring is autumn, so earth tones look best on me – and even though I still think it looks like a potato sack, it’s a nice potato sack, so I’m happy to add it to my closet.

P/S: Looking at these photos again, I realized that my beige sandals may be better – they make the bottom half of the outfit less heavy – but as I just wore these sandals earlier in the week, it was easier to grab them.